A hero’s welcome.... really, the closest thing they could do, in
those days, to a ticker-tape parade! It was easier to grab the olive
branches and the palm branches than to chop up the confetti, as far
as we know. And we also know, after a hero’s welcome on Sunday, by
the end of the week, Jesus was arrested, interrogated, tortured
brutally, sentenced to death and executed as the single most famous
victim of capital punishment in the history of the human race.

Tuesday mornings, I usually gather with Catholic, Presbyterian and
Lutheran leaders to look at the gospel and talk about it. Our
discussion was, “Did he know what he was getting into? Did he know
how the week would end up?” I would say that he knew exactly what he
was getting into, not by any magic, not by fortune-telling, not by
prophecy, not by divine powers, but by simple common sense. He knew
exactly that he was on a collision course, and had been on a
collision course, with the religious and political authorities from
the day he announced in Nazareth that he had come to set free
prisoners, to proclaim good news to the poor, and remember what his
neighbors did? They tried to lynch him. They tried to kill him. And
then, again and again, they were lifting stones to kill him. But they
waited and he walked right through them. At the festival time, we are
told he couldn’t go up to Jerusalem publicly. So he had to sneak into
town because they were out to get him. And they knew in this final
week, he knew, that they were trying to arrest him but they couldn’t
do it because he was so popular with the crowd around him. He knew
what was happening and what was going to happen.

Jerusalem has three major festivals each year, did in the time of
Jesus. For this particular week, the week of Passover, they knew
there would be at least thirty thousand pilgrims there, which made
the Romans, the occupying force, very nervous. They were worried
about security. They were worried about control. They didn’t want any
trouble-makers. And the religious authorities didn’t want the status
quo to change one bit. And here comes Jesus. He comes from the north
where he was organizing the poor by the thousands on the hillside to
feed them and have them share food with one another. By doing that
alone he became what the Romans would identify as a revolutionary. By
crossing the boundaries of caste and class and system and religious
rules, the religious authorites knew that he was out to overthrow the
establishment, or at least to make a change that they didn’t want.
The fact that, whether he called himself that or not (But the people
called him “Messiah.”) there were a lot of ideas of what the Messiah
was. Some thought, if you are a Messiah, you are going to become and
we are going to have a military overthrow of the occupying forces.
You’re going to lead our insurrection. Others said you’re going to
reform our religion and change it. And others said you are going to
bring a mystical new age to the world. In any case, it was change
that they did not want. One scripture scholar has said that, when he
came to Jerusalem, where the Temple was the political center of the
nation, the Temple was the religious center of the nation, and the
Temple was the economic center of the nation, when he came and he
cleansed the Temple and he announced that he would replace the
temple, and when he said, remember to the woman in Samaria, “The day
will come when we won’t worship there or anywhere else but in Spirit
and Truth,” they knew they had to stop him. The Scripture scholars
said, “It would be like today, in the United States, attacking the
Bank of America,” and the Board of Trustees saying, “We’ve got to get
rid of this guy.”

There are two qualities we see in Jesus during this week. And I think
they are qualities for us too. The qualities are simply that he holds
on and that he lets go. He holds on to his call for justice, for
compassion, for an ethic of the heart, for being faithful children of
God wherever it leads. He will not let go of that vision, of those
values, of that standard, even if it means his execution. Now here’s
the amazing thing! He holds on to that, but he lets go of anger,
resentment, revenge, or saying “Poor me!” He holds on and he goes to
his death. He goes to his death forgiving those around him. His best
friend, Peter, betrays him. And he turns with eyes of compassion and
forgives him. He’s on the cross with two terrorists and he says,
“This day you will be in Paradise with me.” And he looks at those who
executed him and he says, “Father, forgive them for they don’t know
what they do.” Someone has added a good line, “...Or give us the
strength to forgive those who do know what they do.” And plenty did
around Jesus.

We’re called to hold on and to let go, to hold on to justice. Where
we find laws and practice and policy and oppression and violence and
things that are wrong, we don’t give up, but we hold onto the vision
that that has got to be changed, and we have to do something,
something about it. We hold onto peace. Finding peace especially
among nations today or even in our city streets is complex. It’s
complicated and sometimes it means that we look weak because we are
in favor of good things, such as peace. But we have to hold on. And
we have to hold onto compassion and care, and not get tired and not
give up. We have to hold on, but at the same time, you know, I have
to share with you.... I have been in a lot of demonstrations in my
life, demonstrations for good things where we got so angry it was a
sin. We’ve got to hold onto what’s good and let go of anger and
revenge and want-to-get-payback and want-to-get-even. If we are
followers of Jesus and the Jesus movement, we are invited to go that
way which is the way of the cross. To hold on and to let go. It’s the
way of the cross, but it’s also the way to Easter. If we are
followers of Jesus, it’s the only way to go. Amen.